Monday, 19 August 2013

Summer Get-together

It's still hot hot hot here, albeit with a breeze, so I'm still wearing floaty skirts and having Marilyn moments. I'd love to think I'm similar to Marilyn Monroe in some way, but I think the breezy skirt moments are the only thing we have in common, more's the pity. Still, I gave some passing motorists a few giggles, so it wasn't all in vain.

Every now and then my meditation students have a get together, and since we have a reasonable break for the summer it is usually some time in July or August. We've visited museums and castles and played mini golf and all sorts. Yesterday, a group of us met up and went for a visit to the Turner in Margate. I caught the train there as always - there is a very large ticket hall at the station, it's just a big empty space mostly with a couple of counters on one side and a couple of benches on the other and usually that's about it, only at the moment it is hosting some of the final degree show work of some artists from UCA. P had promised that she would check out some work by a friend, so I met her there and had a look at the various scultptures and bits and pieces. While we were there we met one of the artists exhibiting and she chatted to us about her inspiration and the processes for her work, it was lovely.

After that we headed off to meet everyone else at the gallery. A few people cancelled on the day, but it was fine because it ended up being a nice number of people. We all mostly did our own thing and wondered about, FP Mummy came by with Daddy and the girls and they went upstairs to make fossils out of salt dough, while we lingered downstairs. P explained how the big bronze sculptures (that looked like Weebles) were made (it's quite complicated to make bronze moulds) while I resisted the temptation to push them over and see if they sprang back.

Juan Muñoz - 'Conversation Piece III'

We carried on upstairs and went to the Curiousity exhibit upstairs. I had already been round during the private view with Middle B, but it was so busy that I was happy to go back round again. We looked at the giant walrus and the taxidermy and the glass animals and the photography and the Narwal horn and all manner of things.

Afterwards we met up with the rest of the group in the cafe - I got the coffees in and P brought us some Orange and Lavender Cake which was scrummy! A few more people left at this point, and the remaining five of us went off to choose where we were going for dinner.

As it turned out there are quite a few restaurants near the sea front, which is handy since the people who know Margate at all had gone home to put the Fairy Princesses to bed. I wanted to go to Irie Soul Food, but it's not open on a Sunday. We went to a new pizza place that has just opened - the inside is all bare walls and distressed furniture, there was a fetching painting of a dog in graffiti style on an old packing case that was hung on a wall of exposed brick. It had a slight school canteen feel to it, but the food more than made up for it. I had a pear and camborola pizza that was absolutely lovely - the thin crisp base was beautiful, and we also had some spicy broad beans to nibble on which were yummy. Everyone was pretty happy with the food and the company was amiable. We finished early enough for me to get a whole evening in with Fairy Mummy, which made me happy as well.

I spent the evening with Fairy Mummy and the family, we watched a bit of Hitch and just generally hung out in a Sunday evening kind of way - we chatted and folded laundry and got lunch ready for Monday and gossiped and drank tea and it was lovely. I love people pottering about near me and generally being useful and I don't see them enough by half so it was a really nice end to a really nice day. This morning I got to see the little Princesses over breakfast so I got some good chatting in with them too.

I got home in time to have a shower and head back into town to meet with R for coffee and then head to the doctor for minor surgery. It was pretty uneventful, I must say - I was only having a couple of cysts removed - but they did show me them once they took them out which was pretty exciting in a slightly gory kind of way. So now I'm just watching the local anaesthetic wear off and pondering what to have for dinner.